Posted 6 years ago
Ant667
(1 item)
Hi everyone I inherited these swords one is a from what I've been told a iron machete from Africa. and the other I'm clueless. It has markings it's a leather case and handle and the blade is copper. Take a look hopefully someone can give me an idea.
Can't imagine who would need a copper knife, but I know a little bit about machetes (we pronounce it machet). You only show one side of the bloody thing, so we don't know if there are legible markings on the other side. The plastic handle seems to have shown up around WWII with the Americans before they discovered the Chinese. This design, for some reason, persisted after the war. The blades are thin & if something is hit the wrong way, your arm is in danger of crumbling from the intense vibration. The blade on your's appears to be wider than the usual western made machete and that makes me wonder a bit. The best machetes I've found were made for the British colonies (usually in India) and have hardwood handles with thicker quality steel blades. You can't detect any markings ?
So I checked out the machete no markings just the bumpy ware look you can see. Some scuffs on the handle it is plastic. The handle also has some old woven rope thing on the end.
As for the copper blade I put up some better pictures.
I would guess the knife is bronze not copper.
It's turned green near the handle so unless bronze has such a copper look to it and greens then maybe it is bronze.
Bronze is mostly copper so it does turn green
Hmm. Any idea on the markings? The Sheith and handle are leather and have markings all over them if zoom in on picture can see better.
So I did look up on google "bronze sabre" and there was an image that looked similar but it wasn't linked to anything sadly..